New stadium

The BJK Inonu Stadium in Istanbul hosted tens of thousands attendees at an Iron Maiden concert Friday, the last concert the stadium will entertain before construction begins on a new stadium 23 metres north of the BJK Inonu Stadium.

The state-of-the-art, 40,000-seat facility will host rugby sevens should Istanbul be awarded the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games against the backdrop of the Bosphorus.

The BJK Inonu Stadium was in The Times of London’s Top 10 stadiums list, with the new incarnation giving athletes the opportunity to compete in a cutting-edge facility in Europe as they overlook Asia across the Bosphorus. The new stadium has an expected completion date of October 2014.

Istanbul is bidding against Madrid and Tokyo to host the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games. The International Olympic Committee will select the Host City of the Games at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires 7 September.